The Full Monty
by Medie
Summary: It's Cassie's first Christmas on earth -- Jack and Daniel take her christmas shopping and Daniel does some thinking about the art of anticipation. (Pre-slash)


Title: The Full Monty  
  
Author's Name: Medie  
  
Written For: thehush  
  
Pairing or Character: Daniel/Jack (Pre-slash), Cassie and a cameo by Janet Fraiser. ;-p  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoiler Warnings: Nary a one though it's set in Season two  
  
Author's Note: I'm supposing that when Cassie came to Earth in season 1, Christmas had already passed so. And also? First time I've out and out written Jack/Daniel (even though it's pre-slash) so eek! ;-p As for the title? Well..it's the full experience. ;-p  
  
"The Full Monty"  
  
by M.  
  
------------  
  
It all began quite innocently enough. Really innocently. About as innocently as it could get.  
  
Cassie asked a question.  
  
He was bringing her back from seeing a movie, her first, when she tugged on his hand to get his attention. Crouching before her, he met the little girl's gaze and listened, she leaned forward to conspiratorially whisper, "I need your help with something."  
  
"Okay..." Nodding, he gestured for her to continue. "With what?"  
  
She checked over her shoulder, watching for Janet, then whispered, "I need to buy Christmas presents for Mom and Sam."  
  
"Ah." His expression grave, Jack nodded again. "Okay..." He leaned back against the railing of the front steps and considered it. "This? This Christmas shopping is a big thing. We're gonna need help. Tell you what...you got anything planned for this weekend?" He waited until she shook her head to say no before continuing, "Okay good. Then, I'll grab Daniel and we'll go Christmas shopping, ok?"  
  
Cassie's smile was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen as she nodded firmly and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him quickly. "Thanks Jack!"  
  
"Anytime." He responded, trying hard to hide the lance of pain as the thought occured to him. He missed Christmas shopping with Charlie. "I'll give you a call tomorrow, let you know when we're coming by, ok? We'll make a day of it. Believe me, Christmas shopping? Not to be done lightly. Big, big Earth tradition."  
  
With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, she shook her head at him. "You say that about everything."  
  
"And have I ever been wrong?" Jack asked archly with a lift of his head.  
  
She giggled. "Yes."  
  
"Oh yeah? When?"  
  
"All the time." She countered smartly, as the front door opened to Janet Fraiser. "Hi Mom!"  
  
"Hey sweetheart." Janet smiled widely at her. "Have fun at the movie?"  
  
"Oh tons." Cassie affirmed, moving to her mother's side. "Jack bought JubJubs. He said..."  
  
"It's an Earth rule." Janet finished in time with her daughter. "He seems to have a lot of them."  
  
"Well, you gotta admit, Doc." Jack stood up, his grin in his eyes. "There's a lot of stuff kids just have to do."  
  
She laughed, sharing an grateful look with him. He'd done so much for Cassie. She couldn't begrudge him that. The things he thought to do with Cassie, for Cassie, she'd forever be thankful for. "So they do."  
  
Cassie grinned up at Jack then and he winked back, the conspirators silently acknowledging their plot. Having the feeling that something was afoot, Janet looked from one to the other, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What are you two up to?" She questioned, watching both school their expressions into identical looks of innocence.  
  
"Us?" Jack smiled his most charming smile. "Whatever makes you think that we might be 'up to' something?"  
  
"Yeah, Mom," Cassie put in, smiling too. "Why'd you ask that?"  
  
Janet pursed her lips, resisting the urge to put her hands on her hips and demand answers. They were clearly having the time of their lives with her confusion and clearly had no intention of fessing up. "I can't imagine," she said finally, a smile ghosting around her mouth, "Where on earth I got an idea like that. Can't imagine in the slightest."  
  
--------  
  
"Hey Daniel, whatcha doin'?" Leaning on the table, Jack surveyed the artifact lying before the archaeologist. Daniel was looking at the thing with the same fascination his friend reserved for the very fastest and coolest of aircraft. Typically oblivious, the other man didn't answer so he prompted him again, "Daniel?"  
  
"Hmm?" Finally lifting his head from his work, Daniel pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Did you say something, Jack?"  
  
"Yes." Jack nodded once. "Whatcha doin?" He moved closer, leaning over the artifact. "What's this?"  
  
"It's, uh, a tablet from P3J-702. SG-8 brought it back and they wanted an analysis of it. As far as I can tell, it's Spartan. Talks about games similar to the Olympics...it seems to indicate Cronus used them to choose the best hosts. The winners thought they were going to be blessed by the gods," Daniel's expression filled with distaste. "But..."  
  
"Not much with the blessing, yeah. Sucks." Standing up, Jack smiled cheerfully. "Say, you got plans for this weekend?"  
  
Daniel Jackson had been accused, more than once, of having far more than his fair share of naievete but he wasn't stupid. It took him all of ten seconds to recognize the look in his friend's eyes and come to the conclusion that he was about to get roped into doing something that Jack had already volunteered him for and there wasn't any way he was going to talk his way out of it. It was a scenario he'd played out with Jack O'Neill more than once. Sighing, he squared his shoulders and met the other man's eyes. "By the sound of things, you've already made them. So...what have I been shanghaied into this time?"  
  
"Christmas shopping." Grabbing a stool, Jack sat down and reached out to grab a book, flipping through it. "Cassie wants to go. Needs to do some shopping for Carter and her mother. Obviously can't get the Doc to take her so..."  
  
"She asked you." Daniel finished. "And you volunteered me."  
  
"Yeah, well, I figured you probably know more about this sort of thing than I do." Jack demurred with a shrug.  
  
"Christmas shopping?" The archaeologist folded his arms across his chest and looked skeptically at his friend. "Who do I have to Christmas shop for?" At the faintly reproachful look he recieved for that comment, he quickly amended, "Besides you, I mean."  
  
Mollified, the older man hopped back to his feet, closing the book. "Well, we're going on Saturday and I promised you'd come with. Cassie's excited about it and you're not gonna let her down are you?" Jack gave him his most pleading look. "C'mon, Daniel...It'll be fun!"  
  
It occurred to Daniel at that moment that, of all the words in the English language or just about any language really, the words 'it'll be fun' were, at least when they came from Jack O'Neill, the most terrifying words ever uttered. More terrifying even than 'what could possibly go wrong'. Much, much more terrifying. They were, to Daniel, the most infamous of famous last words.  
  
------  
  
Standing at the perfume counter, several days later, resisting the urge to sneeze after what must have been the fiftieth perfume was spritzed in his direction, Daniel solidly resolved that, yes, Jack O'Neill would hereafter be forbidden from saying "It'll be fun." Absolutely forbidden. In fact, he was also not allowed to volunteer him for anymore shopping expeditions that involved - even remotely - the potential for perfume shopping. Not to mention make up. Though, he had to admit, seeing Jack O'Neill trying to help Cassie decide which eyeshadow would bring out Janet's eyes better by serving as an impromptu model...that just might be worth giving his allergies more hell than Gate travel had ever done.  
  
In fact, Jack's eyes still had that special glow and Daniel couldn't help leaning over to murmur, "Maybe you should pick up that Grecian Glow one for yourself. You'll have all the System Lords dying to know where you got it."  
  
"A thousand deaths Daniel," Jack muttered under his breath, just loud enough to be heard, "Keep that up and you will officially die a thousand slow deaths. Slow, torturous, painfully agonizing deaths."  
  
"Hey, this was your idea." The archaeologist pointed out almost cheerfully, turning to survey a display of Christmas themed bath sets. If he remembered correctly, he'd heard Sam and Janet talking about something like them during a post-mission physical a few weeks before. Perfect for Cassie to give them. "I just got dragged along for the ride."  
  
Jack rubbed at his eyes yet again, feeling irritation grow at the sight of the sparkling shadow catching the light from the displays. "Yeah, well, trust me, this never entered my mind. Who buys makeup for Christmas?"  
  
Daniel tracked Cassie's progress toward them as she carried what looked like a jewelry box toward them for opinion. "Cassie, apparently. She's having a blast."  
  
"Yeah," Jack smiled, eyeshadow forgotten as he watched the young girl. "She's totally getting into the whole Christmas thing. Made me promise we'd rent "It's A Wonderful Life" next week. Wanna come over and watch?"  
  
"Love to." The answer was out of his mouth before Daniel had even had a chance to consider the idea and he fumbled for more words, trying to cover his eagerness. "We, uh, we've gotta make sure Cassie gets the whole Christmas experience, right?" There, that sounded reasonable, didn't it? After all, he couldn't think of a better reason for wanting to watch a movie he'd seen a hundred times before. Certainly didn't have anything to do with sitting in a semi-dark room with Jack for a couple of hours, fighting over the popcorn. No, he told himself seriously, that had nothing to do with it. Not a damn thing. Nope.  
  
"Exactly!" Jack agreed after a moment of confusion, clearly coming to the conclusion that all the perfume Daniel had inhaled during their little shopping excursion had caused some weird chemical reaction and driven the poor man insane. It was written all over his features and Daniel silently cursed having learned Jack-speak. There were some things he just didn't need to know. Like what the very odd expressions Jack was capable of really meant.  
  
"Hey, what do you think of this one?!" Stopping breathlessly before them, Cassie thrust a brightly painted wooden box up for inspection, watching their faces anxiously. "Think Mom would like it?"  
  
The box was, well, ugly. Very, very ugly. The kind of ugly that department stores reserved for holidays when throngs of well-meaning youngsters invaded in search of the 'perfect' present for their parents. The kind of ugly that created garish ties, and perfumes that smelled like Eau De Gou'auld which parents then had to pretend was the very height of fine taste and fashion so as not to hurt the little dears feelings.  
  
Jack and Daniel, both well aware of this tradition, Jack being in possession of a few of those ties and Daniel having present some of those perfumes to his mother as a child, shared a wicked grin before nodding vigorously.  
  
"She'll love it." They chorused with great enthusiasm. After all, if Cassie was going to get the full impact of Christmas...Janet had to as well. It was, the men determined, only fair.  
  
Cassie beamed, clutching her find to her chest. "Um...what next?"  
  
"Next," Jack moved forward, turning her in the direction of the gift-wrapping counter, "we buy it and get gift-wrapped. That way, it looks great under the tree."  
  
"And your Mom can't tell what it is until she opens it on Christmas morning." Daniel added, falling into step with them. "The surprise is the best part."  
  
"Au contraire, mon ami," His friend disagreed with the waggle of a finger and a gleam in his eye. "The anticipation is the best part..."  
  
"Ah, yes, true." Daniel allowed with a duck of his head and a sneaking grin. "Anticipation...that does have its advantages, that is, uh, true." He could definitely attest to that one. He was certainly anticipating watching that movie at Jack's. Not that he was about to. Openly. But, he had to admit, Cassie was going to love it. Cause, that was the whole point of renting it. So Cassie could see it and they could see it with her and...reminisce about stuff. Like Christmas and...stuff. And when had his brain decided to take a vacation without telling him? It was extremely inconvenient. He was supposed to be the one who was always thinking. He could hardly live up to that tradition without his brain now could he? Yet, in moments such as the one he currently found himself in, with Jack looking at him with that expectant look it was hard to concentrate. Much less remember that Cassie was there. And that she'd be there at the house, with the movie. Was it getting hot? He swallowed quickly, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah, the anticipation, it's fun. You'll see what we mean, Cassie, when your Mom puts the tree up and there's presents under it. You can't wait to, uh, unwrap a few. See what's inside."  
  
The young girl looked from one man to the other then put the box up on the counter for the clerk to check through and wrap. "Christmas is that fun huh?"  
  
"Oh yeah," Jack affirmed with a nod. "Christmas has all sorts of fun about it. Very hard not to like Christmas, right, Daniel?"  
  
"Very hard." Daniel agreed. "Best holiday of the year."  
  
"It must be." Cassie decided, her tone grave. "Everyone seems so excited...Like they can't wait for it to get here."  
  
"And that, Cassie, is anticipation." Jack explained, sneaking a look at his friend. "You just...can't wait."  
  
"Good things come to those who wait." Daniel countered, the platitude coming to his lips automatically.  
  
"Ahh, but anticipation makes the wait fun."  
  
Between them, their young charge looked from one to the other and shook her head. "You guys are weird." She handed over her money to the clerk and then took the bag containing her mother's present with a smile. "C'mon, I think I saw something Sam'll love."  
  
As Jack and Daniel obediently fell into step behind her, following her back toward the bath sets Daniel had been examining earlier, Jack leaned into say, "How about you, Daniel? See anything you'd love?"  
  
The casually voiced question made him stumble and look at his friend with surprised eyes. "I...think so. Maybe. I'll let you know."  
  
With a nod, Jack continued on, "You do that, Daniel, you do that. In the meantime," He cast a teasing grin over his shoulder. "I'll be living in anticipation."  
  
Okay, so there were words that were even more infamous last words than 'it'll be fun'. At least, coming from Jack O'Neill there were. It seemed, Cassie wasn't the only one getting a lesson in anticipation. Daniel had a strong feeling that Jack had just called class to order and he was the star pupil. Daniel adjusted his glasses, trying to focus on what Cassie was telling him. Living in anticipation...  
  
Like Jack had said, anticipation was the best part.  
  
Silently, to himself, Daniel chuckled.  
  
Living in anticipation...yeah, he could do that.  
  
Finis 


End file.
